The International annual conference of Bridges: Mathematical
Connections in Art, Music, and Science was created in 1998 and is
conducted annually. It has provided a remarkable model of how seemingly
unrelated and even antipodal disciplines, such as mathematics and art,
can be crossed. During the conference, practicing mathematicians,
scientists, artists, educators, musicians, writers, computer
scientists, sculptures, dancers, weavers, and model builders have come
together in a lively and highly charged atmosphere of mutual exchange
and encouragement. Important components of this conference series,
apart from formal presentations, are gallery displays of visual art,
working sessions with practitioners and artists who are crossing
mathematics-arts boundaries, and evening musical or theatrical events.
Furthermore, a lasting record of each Bridges Conference is its
Proceedings – a beautiful resource book of the papers and the visual
presentations of the meeting.

The birthplace of the conference was a private liberal art college in
Kansas, Southwestern College. After a few years the conference
grew and found new places to be hosted such as Towson University,
Maryland, the University of Granada, Spain, the Banff Centre, Canada,
the University of London, England. Other future host cities are
Athens, Greece, and Holland.

The founder and the director of this conference is Reza Sarhangi, a
Mathematics faculty member at Towson University. The normal size
of the conference is about 150 participants. However, since the
conference reaches the public by providing mathematical art exhibits,
musical events, public lectures, and theater shows, the number of
attendees in some cases reaches more than five hundred. Most
participants are faculty members from colleges and universities that
try to cross other disciplines to find new ideas and develop new ways
of teaching mathematics and science using tools empowered or borrowed
from disciplines such as art and music.

What makes this conference special can be summarized as follow:

A large number of individuals, who are in the education,
scientific, or artistic parts of developing software utilities, in the
area of “mathematics and art” are regular participants of the
conference.

A large number of individuals who are developing manipulative
tools for creating or teaching ideas in connection between mathematics
and other disciplines participate in the conference and present their
findings. They range from the kindergarten level (to teach simple
geometric objects) to the graduate level (to present very sophisticated
polytopes by projecting four dimensional objects to three dimensional
spaces).

The conference always has attendees who authored or are in
process of writing interdisciplinary books or are developing packages
for teaching undergraduate general education courses or honors classes
in the connection between mathematics and art.

The conference also includes visual art, music, education, and
business corporations that seek resources or individuals that can make
short movies, animations, and DVDs (such as programs that can be seen
on PBS).

After years of organizing Bridges conferences, it seems necessary that
a non-profit corporation should be established that not only continues
the annual conference but also expands its related activities.

2. The Objectives of the Bridges
Corporation

The objectives of the Bridges Corporation, which has evolved from the
goals and objectives of the Bridges Conference series are as follow:

Introduce participants to innovative and integrative techniques
that promote interdisciplinary work in the fields of mathematics and
art.

Allow mathematicians and artists who are crossing the
mathematics/arts boundaries opportunities to present their work, meet
each other, and exchange ideas.

Offer encouragement and inspiration to teachers of mathematics,
science, and art at all levels by revealing relationships between
mathematical subjects and their artistic/aesthetic presentations.

Provide participants with an opportunity to improve their
understanding of fields and disciplines outside their primary area of
study.

Offer visual displays and performances of mathematics related art.

Produce interdisciplinary resource materials such as conference
proceedings books, CDs and DVDs for documenting the works of artists
and scientist, or for educational purposes.

3. The Bridges Corporation Plans to Reach its
Objectives

The field of mathematics and art is healthy and growing, as evidenced
by a series of major conferences in the past few years, including the
Art and Math and ISAMA conferences (organized since 1992 by Nat
Friedman), the Bridges conferences (organized since 1998 by Reza
Sarhangi), and art exhibits at the joint AMS/MAA annual meetings (since
2003). The 2005 Renaissance Banff Conference, jointly organized by
BIRS, CMS, and Bridges included many education-related mathematics and
art presentations. At these meetings, there has been much
cross-fertilization of educational ideas, but now the field is ripe to
do some large-scale planting. We can move from a collection of small
individual efforts to a group push with significant impact.

The purpose of this corporation is to make a centre for collaboration
of mathematicians, scientists, educators, scholars, and artists from
both inside and outside academia to not only continue the tradition of
holding the annual Bridges Conference, but also to develop innovative
artistic or educational tools, such as software utilities, movies,
textbooks, and other types of productions, and disseminate them among
colleges and university, corporations, and government educational
agencies.

The corporation will also be involved in other activities such as
organizing public lectures, concerts, workshops, and art exhibits in
topics related to the objectives of the corporation.

The Bridges Corporation will attract grant proposals and grant writers
for developing books and textbooks, artistic productions, or
instructional technology tools and resources.

4. The Structure of the Bridges Corporation

The Bridges: Mathematical Connections in Art, Music, and Science is a
Nonprofit, Non-Member corporation with no voting members that is run by
its Board of Directors votes.

The Board of Directors consists of a President, a Secretary, and three
Board members.

The Board of Directors are selected for a period of four years. A
Board of Director member may be selected indefinitely.
During the last six month of the fourth year, the Board of Director
members vote for a new member. In case a Board of Director member
resigns or deceases in between a period, the other members select a new
member to complete that period.

All other specifics about the structure of this corporation have been
established in the corporation Bylaws.